Nanocomposites are composite materials that contain particles in a size range of 1-100 nanometers (nm). These materials bring into play the submicron structural properties of molecules. These particles, such as clay and carbon nanotubes (CNTs), generally have excellent properties, a high aspect ratio, and a layered structure that maximizes bonding between the polymer and particles. Adding a small quantity of these additives (0.5-5%) can increase many of the properties of polymer materials, including higher strength, greater rigidity, high heat resistance, higher UV resistance, lower water absorption rate, lower gas permeation rate, and other improved properties (see T. D. Formes, D. L. Hunter, and D. R. Paul, “Nylon-6 nanocomposites from Alkylammonium-modified clay: The role of Alkyl tails on exfoliation,” Macromolecules 37, pp. 1793-1798 (2004), which is hereby incorporated by reference herein).
However, dispersion of the nanoparticles is very important to reinforce polymer matrix nanocomposites. Such dispersion of nanoparticles in the polymer matrix has been a problem. That is why those nanoparticle-reinforced nanocomposites have not achieved excellent properties as expected (see Shamal K. Mhetre, Yong K. Kim, Steven B. Warner, Prabir K. Patra, Phaneshwar Katangur, and Autumn Dhanote, “Nanocomposites with functionalized carbon nanotubes,” Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 788 (2004), which is hereby incorporated by reference herein). Researchers have claimed that in-situ polymerization of the nanocomposites can improve the dispersion of the nanoparticles (see Werner E. van Zyl, Monserrat Garcia, Bernard A. G. Schrauwen, Bart J. Kooi, Jeff Th. M. De Hosson, Henk Verweij, “Hybrid Polyamide/Silica Nanocomposites: Synthesis and Mechanical Testing,” Macromol. Mater. Eng. 287, 106-110 (2002), which is hereby incorporated by reference herein). Better properties of the nanocomposites were somehow obtained. However, in-situ polymerization is not proven to be an acceptable manufacturing process for polymer production. Also used has been a melt compounding process, which is a more popular and manufacturable process to make nanoparticle-reinforced polymer nanocomposites (see Eric Devaux, Serge Bourbigot, Ahmida El Achari, “Crystallization behavior of PA-6 clay nanocomposite Hybrid,” Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Vol. 86, 2416-2423 (2002), which is hereby incorporated by reference herein), but the results have not been satisfactory.